Camping!
We love camping!
And here we are camping in Southern Colorado by Lemon Dam.

The kids found some beat up western hats and had a heyday with the ensuing photo session.

And here they are doing what “modern” kids do while camping; Watching a movie in the tent on Mommy’s iPod. It was good for Mommy and good for them because it was raining. And had the movie been inaccessible, they would have absolutely destroyed the inside of the tent.

Roasting our marshmallows…

Tyson and Simon getting attacked by the smoke of the fire.

The kids cracking up at who knows what… some sort of inside joke that Tyson and I aren’t invited to be part of. But, look at them. So happy, having such a fabulous time together. I love this picture.

My Red Beauty in the forest.

Seriously, not only do I have the most beautiful children in the world, I am lucky enough to have the most beautiful Ridgeback in the world!

Some views around the property. I love the mountains in the Summer. And the sky. Don’t even get me started on the sky… or even the trees, for that matter.

The kids’ first day of school was August 16th and nothing too out of the ordinary happened on that day.
Helene was excited and Simon was not. It turns out that the summer has done nothing to change much in the usual way of things as far as my kids’ elementary education is concerned.

Here you can clearly see their attitudes about returning to school.

New, spiffed out backpacks.

Another picture that I love of my children.

I think this photo clearly shows how done they were with the “first day of school” photo session.

Cici is now almost six months old. At her last vet appointment she weighed in at forty pounds. I am sure that by now she is well into fifty pounds, if not almost sixty. She just grows and grows like nothing I’ve ever seen. It seems that every day sees her a big taller, longer or thicker. But, she is still as gorgeous as ever and still the sweetest most fun puppy ever ever ever!

Here is my backyard baby looking gorgeous against her New Mexico home background.

In this picture she looks so regal that one would think her a princess…

And I am still crazy about this face that she has.

This is her “attacking” me despite the fact that she needs a nap. You can tell she needs a nap by the way her tongue is sticking out.

I love it when she does this… It looks like she’s embarrassed by something I just said or did. Just like some kids that I seem to know…

I love this picture of us. She just never can get close enough to my face… It seems to be a goal of hers. To bridge the gap between her and my face. Too cute, if you ask me.

And here she is doing a big fat “no-no”. Jumping up on me. Which she knows she’s not supposed to do, but can’t seem to help herself. Look how happy she is that she is doing it. And look at her heart dog tag. That’s new and I think it looks so good on her.

I started school on August 23rd and, of course, a most interesting semester it is already proving to be. I am taking 16 credit hours. Calculus II, Anatomy II, Organic Chemistry I, and Genetics. I am upset that I don’t have time to take Spanish this semester, but I will for sure be taking it the following semester. I know I’ll be busy, but to be busy is to be happy… at least for me.

Ah! I forgot to say that my blog is now FIVE years and one month old. Happy Belated Blogiversary to me!

Another thing:
I also blog somewhere else:
http://auntscrappy.com
This is my quilt/needlework blog. Will be interesting to those who wonder just what else I do besides school, reading, school, kids, family, etc….

Well, here we go.
July 1st, 2010, I successfully completed my Anatomy I class. My relief was as great as my expectations of a relaxing summer. By some sort of Divine intervention, on the very day that I finished my class a present arrived for me… a late birthday present, to be precise. The new Lego Harry Potter game arrived after MUCH waiting and anticipation on my part. You see, that is what my kids got for me way back in February when it was my 32nd birthday. Oh, I don’t know who was more excited… me or Simon. But! I do know that Simon is WAY better at the game than I am. What can I say? The kid’s a natural. (ps. I know I’m a geek and could care less!)

Here, Simon is a bit distressed that he has to be contented with watching Mommy play the game. (And, it’s not going over very well, either.)

Only a few days later we made our way up to Telluride, CO to spend the Fourth of July with my BIL and SIL. Let me tell you that the Fourth in Telluride is SO much fun. Just check it…
The day before the Fourth (I guess that would be the Third) we went to an outdoor concert. We had Cici with us and she was an absolute hit. I’ve never been in a more dog-friendly town and Cici soaked up the attention like a tried and true celebrity. (Oh… and the kids had fun as well!)
We were right up in front at the concert and it was loud. Well, if you know Simon and loud noises, then you now know Cici and loud noises. Just look!

Poor girl decided that the best seat in the house involved wedging her head in between her Kelly’s knees so that her ears would be covered up as much as possible!

And here is Simon assuming the usual defensive position. Ah, the evils of having super-human hearing…

Not long after this, the poor pink poodle’s left eye popped… not a pretty picture, to be sure.

Needless to say, Cici was one tired puppy after all the attention. So our Rhodesian Lady spent as much time as possible sleeping or acting as if she wanted to sleep. (You know that is the case when she is lounging with her tongue partly out of her mouth.)

Do you see the lolling tongue?

And here you see how she falls asleep in her Tyson’s lap.

And here you see how she falls asleep in her Kelly’s lap while driving in the car.

The morning of the Fourth we attended the town parade.

My favorite view in town.

The kids with the best view of the parade in town.

My SIL and I. I LOVE her shirt… I must remember to get me one.

An attempt at a family picture with my favorite view in the background.

Ah, my handsome children in front of one of the most gorgeous backgrounds on the planet.

The end of the parade…

And the night of the Fourth we went to Town Park to enjoy the amazing fireworks display. I’ve never seen such amazing fireworks. These things were SO close that the sparks fell down onto the crowd. It was cold and damp, but it was sooo worth the watch!

You see how my children find loud, cold environments…

But Tyson and I had a good time!

Aren’t they beautifu? I just love taking pictures of fireworks.

The trip completly wore Cici out. I don’t know…. maybe it was because she was either running around, tackling the other dogs, like a madwoman, or attempting to find the best place to nap.

Here she is thinking it a great idea to attempt to hurdle poor Valerie. (Which, by the way, Cici did, in fact, hurdle her on a few occasions. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her flying over Valerie! It was SO funny!)

One of her first napping spots…. but she found it to be too narrow for a very good nap.

And here we see her favorite napping spot. Nestled up against Simon while he plays Lego Harry Potter. So cute.

We came home to another surprise for ME!

About a week after our return from Telluride, the kids and I packed up and took a roadie to see my parents and three of my sisters. Going to the beach was all I asked for of the trip. LOVE. the beach. I love that it revives me. (I just need to remember to FORGET just how much I want to live by the beach, cuz that aint happenin’ anytime soon…)

One of the best parts of the trip? Seeing GRADY!

Balboa Beach at dusk.

You can’t go to Balboa without going on the ferris wheel!

You see how excited Simon was to take a picture after the ride was over.

Here we are on the auto ferry, which, if you ask Simon, was the best part of the Island trip!

Well, a week after our return from that trip, my Little Lady turned SIX. All I can ask at this point is, where has the time gone?

I took the kids to see Despicable Me before taking Helene shopping for her big day!

Here you see the crown that Helene picked out on our shopping trip.

And here you see her with her “most wonderful” Tinkerbell cake.

I think that is enough for now… The next post will be about our camping trip, the first day of school, and more CICI!

I have two more weeks of my Anatomy and Physiology class, and as of July 1st, I will be FREE!
For SEVEN weeks!

What, oh just WHAT, am I going to do with myself?
Umyeah. I plan on spending a lot of time with my Simon, my Helene, and my Cici. Also, I am going to do some sewing, quilting, and crocheting. Oh. And I fully plan on going on some sort of vacation. Probably involving camping with my family. And I’m gonna RELAX and enjoy not having to do homework or study for ANYTHING. It’s basically going to be amazing.

In other news… (Cici News!)
Cici decided to show us what a tough chick she is and thought it a great plan to bring the evidence of her toughness right onto our back porch. A dead freaking mouse, people. Dead. Mouse.
Ummm. YUCK.
However. I was oddly impressed. Weird, I know.

Cici is now twelve weeks old and still my gorgeous Rhodesian Lady.

She basically has the cutest dog face EVER.

And did I mention that between 8 weeks and 11 weeks of age, Cici managed to DOUBLE her weight?
Umyeah. She went from ten to twenty pounds in THREE friggin’ weeks.

We are having fun with our Cici, however I have found that puppy teeth are truly taxing on my patience. She has started going on some short jogs with Tyson and she loves it… (The running part, that is. She’s not all that hip on just walking.) And we love it because a short jog makes for a tired puppy. And, it turns out, a tired puppy is a really good puppy.

Oh! And much to our surprise (not a good surprise, either), we have discovered that Cici is something of an escape artist. She has figured out a way to get out of the backyard and into the front yard. Yeah. It’s no good. Luckily, she shows zero interest in actually leaving our property, she just seems to want more area to explore. I don’t like it though and we are actively trying to make sure that she stops doing it by constantly checking on her while she’s in the backyard unattended. She isn’t getting out as much anymore and I think it’s because she’s getting too big for her preferred escape method. (She squeezes through some of the slats in our fence. These aren’t wide slats, either. I would never have thought that she could squeeze through… even when she was ten pounds. Just goes to show what I know about Cici’s determination.)

My kids are totally into summer vacation now and are, I think, a bit bored. We’re doing swimming lessons and they are looking forward to the end of Mom and Dad’s summer school. Because THAT’S when we get to go camping! Anyways. Enjoy the rest of the pictures. I’ve got to go. I have a feeling Cici is getting ready to do her disappearing act. (she’s been in the back for twenty minutes unattended…)

Happy Father’s Day!

A backyard sunset

Helene doing her Helene thing and Simon doing his Simon thing. Love it.

And to think that it was just last year that she graduated from preschool…
Of course, she was the most smartest, most gorgeous kindergartner there ever was and we are just so proud that she made it through the rigors of Kindergarten! ~sigh~
No, seriously, enough of my sortof-sarcasm… She kicked Kindergarten’s butt and is an amazing reader and really super great at math. I wish you all could have been at her graduation because her class did a dance and she was, of course, the star of the show. You had to be there to see it…. and even though I am a VERY proud parent, I am NOT exaggerating about my little diva performer. I honestly don’t know what to do about her sometimes. There is just ZERO stage-fright inside of her. I mean, there is just NONE!

In other news….

We made the big, huge, gigantic leap and added a cute little puppy to our family. On Sunday, May 23rd, we met her at the airport after her long flight from Texas. She was just as scared and nervous as you would think an eight week old puppy would be, but she soon found that we loved her already and wanted to make her feel safe and happy.

We named her Cici and after just a few days of being with us she is in full puppy mode and loving her new family and environment. She is a Rhodesian Ridgeback, was born on March 24th, 2010, and is just everything that we were looking for.

She wants to play with everything that she isn’t supposed to… Like my slippers, Tyson’s shoelaces, my clothes, her leash… I think you get the general idea. Most of playtime is spent redirecting her to play with “Cici’s toys”. (Aka: anything that apparently doesn’t interest her.) She is getting the idea though… I just think she is a sassy little thing that likes messing with us.
She has been amazing with housebreaking. Basically, we’ve had only one accident and that happened on the very first night she was here. She got the idea of the leash really fast and is already responding to “heel” and “come”. Obviously, she doesn’t always respond to those commands, but pretty much, she has me sold on the idea that she is just the smartest dog on the planet.

Yes, we are having a lot of fun with Cici, so expect more Cici posts and Cici pictures!
I am really busy with my summer Anatomy and Physiology class and already cannot wait for the end of July… because that is when my Summer officially begins! I get a whole THREE WEEK break before the fall semester starts and it already doesn’t seem like enough of a break for me.

I’m off to study now…. That is unless Cici makes me go play with her again!

I did it, too…. I mean, I got all the A’s that I wanted/needed.
A true miracle, if you ask me.
I went into my Calculus final with an 87% in the class. That meant that I had to get a 95% on the final in order to get an A (an 89.9999%) in the class. Well, I guess I pulled it off and I was nothing more than shocked and relieved when I saw the A posted on my online grade sheet. What a freaking nightmare. I do feel like I understood the class though, and I hope that I truly did because in the Fall I am taking Calculus II and I am totally intimidated by it already.

Moving on…
My kids are getting bigger, bossier, funnier, and talk-ier by the day and I still can’t believe that they are both in school from 7:45am til 2:45pm. This is just insane to my old stay-at-home-mom mentality. Don’t get me wrong, I love it… and they love it. It’s just that it came quicker than I thought it would. But, that’s what I get for having them within twenty months of each other and then not having anymore after the fact. If I do say so myself, they’ve certainly morphed from adorable babies/toddlers to super cute kids.

They have two weeks left of school and I am still trying to figure out what to do with them over the summer. I know we are getting them a dog…. at this point it’s just a matter of when. We are looking to get a Rhodesian Ridgeback and are finding it difficult to find any that are close by. I’m hoping that the addition of a new dog will keep them busy because I sure as hell know that it will keep Tyson and I busy! I guess I should clarify and say that we are getting them a puppy. And from what I can tell, babies are easier to deal with than puppies. Wish me luck….

I’ve already started summer school and I’m taking Anatomy and Physiology I. I figure that I am utterly insane to take a class like this over eight weeks, but desperation makes people do insane things. Long story short, I am looking at eight weeks of of a two hour class four days a week and six hours of study time every day of the week. Love it. Again, wish me luck…..

Remember how I said that I was doing some interesting things to get more energy into my life? Well, about six weeks ago I went full vegetarian and am trying to go completely vegan. Most days I adhere to the vegan lifestyle, but sometimes it gets hard because eggs are EVERYWHERE and cheese is just really freaking good. I’m also trying to cut out refined sugar… Again, a very tough thing to do as it is quite literally in almost EVERYTHING. (including swedish fish, which I am totally obsesssed with.) Has this change worked?

YES!

On more days than before, I am feeling better, more energized. I’m no longer dozing in classes, which is HUGE. I still have days where I feel worn out, but certainly not as much as before. Other things in my body seem to be working better as well, and I feel like I look better. Gone are the dark circles under my eyes. Gone is the perpetual tired look. I’m also not breaking out near as much or near as bad as I used to… and it’s only been six weeks!

Me, after I dyed my hair much lighter (okay… blonde) and with very, very little makeup on. In fact, I think I only have a tiny bit of powder-foundation on in this photo. A month ago, I would have NEVER posted a picture like this.

I do have some way to go, however, because I do want to be full vegan. I am learning how to cook that way and shop that way, so very soon, I think, will I be where I want to be. I do fully expect that I will cheat on the cheese front every now and again because, whoa! I just love cheese sooooo much. But I’ve gotta say that I don’t miss the meat at all. I also don’t miss most of the dairy products out there. I’m not missing eggs so much because you can buy egg replacer… but when you buy things pre-made from the store it is hard to get things that don’t have egg in them. As far as refined sugar is concerned, that is going to be an on-going process and I think I’ll get there over time. A lot of time. I mean, refined sugar is in MOST things nowadays. I’m also trying to shun white flour totally. It’s not so bad, but I do get a white bread craving that is annoying.

Anyway, I hate to bore you with my new eating regime, but it is working for me so I thought that a little bit of this kind of talk wouldn’t hurt anybody.

So… life for me is still busy, I’m going to be starting up Project: Nello Runs here in a few weeks and I am excited. I think I’ve given my RSD relapse enough time to completely go away and am eager to see if another go at the running thing will bring on another one. If it does, then I guess I’ll have to stick to walking… boring old walking… but I’ll find something to do if it kills me!

Time for bed.
I’ve got a day tomorrow!

ps… loving this song:

Basically, I’ve hated almost every stinking minute of this semester.
I started off the semester on the completely wrong foot, and never quite recovered.

I would say that due to all the stress surrounding my health at the beginning of the semester, coupled with my complete lack of motivation from day one, was the reason for my downfall. I bet, however, that I could have rallied after I found out that my optic nerves were back to normal, had it not been for the complete and TOTAL relapse of my RSD. After that lovely incident, my fate was sealed.

I’ve spent the ENTIRE semester in catch-up mode and also fighting to scrape a low A in each and every one of my stupid classes… even my beloved Spanish. Why? Absences. And, also? It’s real hard to study and do homework when you are either in pain (foot or head, take your pick) or are fighting to stay awake. The only reason that this semester was soooo much harder than the last was because of that. I have a lot of hard classes, but it shouldn’t have been as tough this semester as it has been.

I’ve probably told you before, but I’ll tell you again. I’m taking Cell Biology, General Chemistry II, Calculus I, and Spanish IV. I took my biology final this morning and I’m afraid that it didn’t go well at. all. I’m thinking I’ll be lucky to have gotten a high C. Realistically, I am pretty sure I got a 70%. I think I’ll be able to scrape the elusive A in the class…. but that all depends on how badly I did on the final. My other three finals are next week and I’ll be completely finished by next Wednesday. I. Cannot. WAIT. I’m pretty sure I’ll get the A’s in Chemistry and Spanish, but Calculus is a big question. I’ve been fighting all semester to get an A in that class all because I got a 70% on the very first test. I find out tonight what I got on the last chapter exam, and if I got an A on it, I will go into the final with an A. If not…. well, it’s going to be a rough go and it may not even be possible to get the A. (Seriously going crazy about that right now, so I’m not going to talk about it anymore thankyouverymuch.)

Why, why WHY am I am sooo hung up on getting A’s?
Believe it or not, it’s not because I am OCD. It’s because I want to get into pharmacy school on my FIRST attempt. And it’s tough to get into pharmacy school. So a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. And this semester? Well. It. has. completely. reeked.

I get a whole THREE day break before I start summer school.
Yes. I realize that I’m crazy.
But you have to realize that I’m desperate. And aging.
The sooner I get into pharmacy school the sooner those four years will pass by.
I’m thinking that I’ll be about 38 or 39 by the time I’ll be able to call myself of pharmacist.
Now you see my desperation, not to mention the fact that I’m aging fast.
Umyeah. I try not to think about it.

Moving on…
I had better get a nap in before I have to go to Calculus class tonight seeing how I only got about 2 hours sleep last night due to my last minute push to study for the disasterous biology final that I had this morning.
I promise that I’ll be back blogging very soon.
With pictures.
And some very funny stories about what I am doing to get some energy into my body.

Stay tuned.